[kictanet] Should We Reserve a Slot for an ICT Professional Within the IEBC Commission??

[Benson Muite]

Amendments to the IEBC act[0] are possible, see for example[1].


A constitutional amendment is not needed as the constitution does not go 
into details on who can be a commissioner[2]. The IEBC act Revision 
2012[3], specifies:
1. Selection Panel
(1) Within fourteen days of the commencement of this Act, the President
shall, in consultation with the Prime Minister and with the approval of 
the National
Assembly, appoint a Selection Panel comprising of—
(a) two persons, being one man and one woman, nominated by the
President;
(b) two persons, being one man and one woman, nominated by the
Prime Minister;
(c) one person nominated by the Judicial Service Commission;
(d) one person nominated by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Advisory
Board; and
(e) one person nominated by the Association of Professional Societies
of East Africa

The current act Revision 2020[1] specifies:
1. Selection Panel
(1) At least six months before the lapse of the term of the chairperson or
member of the Commission or within fourteen days of the declaration of a 
vacancy
in the office of the chairperson or member of the Commission under the 
Constitution
or this Act, the President shall appoint a selection panel consisting of 
seven
persons for the purposes of appointment of the chairperson or member of the
Commission.
(2) The selection panel shall consist of —
(a) two men and two women nominated by the Parliamentary Service
Commission;
(b) one person nominated by the Law Society of Kenya; and
(c) two persons nominated by the Inter-religious Council of Kenya.

It seems that professional bodies have been preferred.  At present the 
ICT sector does not have a strong representative body, for example 
comparable to the ACM in the USA or the Institute of Electronics of the 
Chinese Academy of Sciences. Essentially, a body capable of joining the 
International Federation for Information Processing[3] is needed.

The Kenya National Academy of Sciences[4] may also play a good role, 
though at present the website appears to be down.

The IEBC act does not include commissioners with a technical background, 
who might be able to understand engineering of KIEMS kits, the details 
of biometric identification and results transmission. In addition to a 
computer science/IT professional, it would be good for an Engineering 
body such as The Institution of Engineers of Kenya[5] to also make a 
nomination.  Delimitation of boundaries is an important part of the 
requirements of the IEBC, technical expertise in this area is also 
welcome to prevent gerrymandering.


0) https://www.iebc.or.ke/uploads/resources/8Z5fmROhVD.pdf
1) 
http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/2020/TheIndependentElectoralandBoundariesCommission_Amendment_Act_2020.pdf
2) 
http://www.kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/IndependentElectoralandBoundariesCommissionNo9of2011.pdf
3) 
http://www.kenyalaw.org:8181/exist/kenyalex/actview.xql?actid=Const2010#KE/CON/Const2010/chap_15
4) http://www.ifip.org/
5) https://www.knascience.or.ke/
6) https://iekenya.org

On 9/1/22 15:42, Shitemi Khamadi via KICTANet wrote:
> Hi David
> 
> Interesting question. I was pondering the same early this week and my 
> answer is yes. The issue would be the process of getting there and I 
> think we have a number.
> 
> The best would be if it's anchored in the constitution. Meaning that 
> should there be any process to amend the IEBC section, then the sector 
> should consider adding their voice to it. The second is to Parliament 
> and the select committee that oversees this process. A memo to them, 
> quite early in their process should suffice. The same can also be sent 
> to the President. The last is to encourage colleagues to put their names 
> out there when the time comes.
> 
> A representative process closer to the IPPG one could also work, if such 
> an opportunity arises or legal revisions lend themselves to it.
> 
> Thank you
> 
> On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 3:23 PM David Indeje via KICTANet 
> <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke <mailto:kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>> 
> wrote:
> 
>     image.png
>     Dear Listers,
> 
>     In our latest series of blogs about the 2022 Kenya Election as
>     authored by Mr John Walubengo, we are posing a question:
> 
>     "IEBC Commission: Should We Reserve a Slot for an ICT Professional?
> 
>     Mr Walubengo notes that "In all the past three presidential
>     petitions (2013, 2017a, and 2017b), ICT seems to have been central
>     to the Supreme Court’s final decision. However, the way ICT matters
>     were prosecuted, one could almost say the ICT was on trial."
> 
>     Read the rest of the article here: https://tinyurl.com/3sh2h4vt
>     <https://tinyurl.com/3sh2h4vt>
> 
> 
>     --
>     *Kind Regards,*
> 
>     **
> 
>     *David Indeje*
> 
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